Jaya: An Illustrated Retelling of the Mahabharata Read online

  This was unbelievable. This was without doubt a miracle, an act of God defying the laws of logic, space and time. God was on the side of Draupadi and against the Kauravas. God had stood up when man had not.

  Naked, the Goddess is Kali, bloodthirsty and wild as the undomesticated forest. Clothed, she is Gauri, gentle as a domesticated orchard or field. The unclothing of Draupadi is not merely the unclothing of a woman; it represents the collapse of civilization, the move from field to forest, from Gauri to Kali, when dharma is abandoned and matsya nyaya reigns supreme, so that might dominates the meek.

  Hair-splitting arguments regarding whether a man can gamble his wife after losing himself take attention away from the fact that a woman is being gambled away like chattel and one is seeking legal justifications for it. That is the tragedy of the situation.

  According to one folk narrative, once Krishna was bathing in the river with the Pandava brothers when his lower garment got pulled away by the current. Draupadi immediately gave him her upper garment so that he could cover himself. Krishna repaid that act of generosity by coming to Draupadi’s rescue and covering her with cloth when the Kauravas tried to disrobe her.

  49

  The last game

  Draupadi’s eyes flashed fire. ‘I shall never forgive the Kauravas for doing what they have done to me. I shall not tie my hair until I wash it in Dusshasana’s blood.’

  Bhima could not keep quiet any more. ‘And I will kill each and every Kaurava, drink Dusshasana’s blood and break Duryodhana’s thigh with which he insulted my wife.’ His voice boomed across the hall with such force that the dice trembled and the game board burst into flames.

  Outside, the dogs began to wail. Donkeys began to bray. Cats whimpered. Fear crept into Dhritarashtra’s heart. Vidura told his brother, ‘The gods frown upon you and your sons. Stop this madness before it gets further out of hand.’

  The blind king shouted, ‘Stop, Draupadi. Don’t utter that curse that sits on your tongue.’ He then hobbled towards her and said, ‘Shame on me, that I let things go so far. Shame on me, that I tolerated this stupid game. Shame on me, that I enjoyed it too. I am old and blind, and foolish. Forgive them for my sake. I offer you three boons. Take them and leave in peace.’

  Draupadi stopped sobbing and said, ‘First, I want freedom for my husbands and second, I want their possessions to be restored to them.’

  ‘And the third boon? Something for yourself?’

  ‘Nothing,’ said Draupadi. ‘Greed is unbecoming of a warrior’s wife.’

  As the Pandavas were leaving with their weapons and their wife, Karna chuckled and shouted, ‘Draupadi is the raft that saved the drowning Pandavas. Have they no shame? Saved by a woman. What they lost in a game, they accept in charity instead of earning it back.’

  ‘Come back and play a final game, Yudhishtira. One game. Just one and win all that you have lost. Especially your honour,’ cried the Kauravas.

  ‘And if I lose?’ asked Yudhishtira, indicating his willingness to play to the dismay of his brothers. ‘Twelve years of exile in the forest, taking with you nothing but what you carry on your persons, with no claim on Indra-prastha for that period, followed by a final thirteenth year living in hiding. Should you be discovered during this final year, you shall go back into exile for another twelve years.’

  Yudhishtira accepted the terms of the game and made his way to the gambling table. His brothers protested. His wife begged him to stop. But Yudhishtira refused to listen. ‘I will surely win this last game.’

  The dice was rolled once again. And once again Shakuni said, ‘Lo, I have won!’

  The Pandavas were now obliged to leave their city and move into the forest for thirteen long years. Without uttering a word, Yudhishtira bowed to the king and bid farewell to all the members of the royal family and set out with his wife and brothers, carrying nothing but the clothes and weapons on their person.

  Dhritarashtra was told by his charioteer, Sanjay, that while leaving the palace, Yudhishtira covered his face with a cloth, lest his angry eyes destroy Hastinapuri; Bhima flexed his arms that were restless to break the bones of each and every Kaurava; Arjuna picked up a fistful of sand and let it trail behind him, indicating the shower of a million arrows that would soon fall upon those who had wronged his family; Nakula covered himself with mud so that no beautiful woman was tempted to follow him into the forest; Sahadeva painted his face black in shame; and Draupadi let her unbound hair streak across her face, terrifying the women of the city of their eventual fate.

  As they were leaving, Kunti ran after her sons. Vidura ran behind her. Yudhishtira stopped and hugged his mother but requested her to stay back. ‘Whatever be his feelings for me, Duryodhana will not treat you with disrespect. Stay here with my uncles and their wives and your nephews. Wait for us till we come back from exile.’

  With a heavy heart, Kunti let her sons go. ‘Take care of my sons,’ she told Draupadi as she bid a tearful farewell to her daughter-in-law. ‘Pay special attention to Sahadeva. He is sensitive and may not be able to bear the pressure of his calamity too well.’

  Then Kunti and Vidura watched all six pass through the gates of the city and walk towards the southern horizon. Many from the city followed them. They watched them bathe in the Ganga and bid them farewell from the other side of the river. Beyond lay the forests that would be their home for a long, long time.

  Why does Dhritarashtra finally intervene? Is it because good sense finally prevailed? Is it because he suddenly notices bad omens all around and realizes he must protect his sons from the consequences of their megalomania? Is it because, as many folk versions suggest, the palace women including Gandhari and the wives of the Kauravas rise up in protest? Vyasa leaves the reader guessing.

  In South India, Draupadi is worshipped as the fierce virgin-goddess who is let down by her five husbands. In festivals that last up to eighteen days, the whole Mahabharata is re-enacted at the end of which young men walk on fire. This ritual is believed to represent an act of collective expiation by the men for letting down the goddess. In Bangalore, during the Karaga festival, a man dresses up like a woman and travels through the city surrounded by brave men carrying swords, known as Veerakumaras. The man is supposed to represent Yudhishtira, the eldest Pandava, undergoing ritual humiliation as he asks his wife, the goddess, to forgive him and bestow her grace upon his people.

  A solar eclipse is supposed to have occurred when the Pandavas went into exile. This is described by Vidura in the Sabha Parva.

  In the Bhil Bharata, a version of the Mahabharata from the Dungri Bhil community in the northern parts of the Gujarat state, who claim descent from Rajputs, there is a tale of the Pandavas being asked to find ‘a man who is sold by a woman’ before they can proceed with a particularly powerful yagna. Bhima offers to find such a man. He wanders the earth but finds no such man as all the women he meets say that the men who belong to them are their husbands. They inform Bhima that a husband is like a jewel that makes a woman beautiful and therefore cannot be given away like cattle. Finally, Bhima is directed to a courtesan who has many customers. They all chase her but she does not care for them. She willingly sells a man to Bhima so that the Pandavas can perform their yagna. This tale compiled by Dr Bhagwandas Patel seems like an expression of folk outrage on the gambling of Draupadi by the men who were supposed to protect her. They treated her as chattel, not as wife.

  Book Eleven

  Exile

  ‘Janamejaya, in the forest, your once prosperous ancestors lived in poverty and were repeatedly humiliated and humbled.’

  50

  Krishna visits the Pandavas

  While the gambling match was taking place in Hastina-puri, and while the Pandavas were losing all their fortune, Krishna was away at Dwaraka defending his city from attacks by Shishupala’s friends, Shalva and Dantavakra. After pushing them back, he rushed to Hastina-puri. By the time he arrived, however, the match was over and the Pandavas had lost everything.

  Kris